We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Krista Marchand. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Krista below.
Krista, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
There were two major, life-altering, mind-blown kind of moments that needed to happen for me to be able to work creatively full-time. Moments that were obvious in retrospect.
One, I had to realize that I didn’t need to keep chasing new skills or education or jobs or ideas that I was never going to commit to. By that I mean, why was I going back to school for a major I would never give my life to? Why was I trying to develop skills for a job I would never actually take? Why start a business I would never want to be my legacy? I already had skills. Really good, really seasoned, insane skills. Why would I ever try to take on something else that I don’t like, I’m not good at, or that I have to invest a ton of time into actually obtaining. Only because I’ve been conditioned to think it’s what you HAVE to do to get by.
Second, I had to realize that I was putting myself in my own box. I thought, if I wanted to be an actor, everyone had to know me as that. I couldn’t also be a writer, a strategist, or any other artist of any kind. The truth is, is that when you are an artist of one kind, quite often you are an artist of many kinds. And fully accepting that you have these skills that are wildly above and beyond anyone to which they don’t come naturally, means that there is space in this world for you to work creatively, always.
So I put myself out there – obnoxiously and often without always having the right qualifications on paper – and I started getting work. Writing for one contract gave me confidence to write for another. I started saying YES when someone asked me if I was a writer. I wrote everything from websites to socials to proposals and started being introduced as a “wild stallion” kind of writer. The lack of formal education just made me completely unique in what I do. Then I watched as script writing started coming through, then acting opportunities opened, the voice over opportunities, the directing opportunities. And it all came from really grasping that the skills I already have are worth it (pursuing and always developing) and that my artistry doesn’t stop at one modality.
I read somewhere on the internet that if you choose to live your life as an artist, you have to accept that it will be different. And it can be harder, I guess, mostly because the world says it is. But it’s so much harder to do the other thing and have to wage a daily war against your life decisions. It actually is much easier to just be like, hey, I was given this thing and just lean all-the-damn-way into it.
Krista, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m Krista Marchand. And I finally managed to design my life so that I can be in creative work as an actor and writer full time.
I hear a lot of actors say this, but I moved around a lot as a kid – up until I was 10 – so every new place got some version of me. When you are trying to understand who you are and how you relate to the world, but you’re the ‘new girl’ all the time and kind of a novelty, it’s hard to figure out what’s really landing. By the time we stopped moving, I didn’t really know how to keep the momentum going when I was no longer the new kid. Who would I be?
I think reaching into different characters brought me back to that novelty of newness I was accustomed to. It made it really clear to me that there are a lot of different sides of ourselves we can show the world. Can we choose the ugly? The sexy? The (eeeee!) strength?
I’ll never forget an exercise I did in a class a long time ago. Pretty simple: one monologue, run about 6 times over and over again. Each time as someone different – a comedian, a grieving mother, a journalist, a scumbag – and I remember going through each version and not being sure which one I loved most. Because when you really commit deeply to them, there is so much value in ALL of the sides.
So the world has taught me to become the actor that brings it and to develop trust in myself by practicing being that person over and over again. That way, you’re never left wondering if you can do it or thinking, ‘I’m sure the emotion (or rock bottom, or impossible love) will come when I’m on set,’ because you’ve committed to being the person who goes there on repeat.
That’s really what acting is. To get right into all the best and worst of everything being human has to offer – often in ways that get you into way too much trouble if you try them like, just on a Tuesday at 2pm.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Well, I’m still here…
I started being the girl who wanted it so bad but would shake like a leaf every time the camera turned on. I remember on one of my first big network jobs, the lovely series regular I played opposite was talking about being a working actor and looked up and said, “Like we are.” and I felt like a total imposter. When I became pregnant with my first child I was so nervous to tell my agent I almost threw up because I thought she would drop me. When I came back after having two babies in a row and had to start auditioning for smaller roles again I had to really dig deep to overcome the hurt that came with that. When I had to move out of the big city to a smaller one to accommodate my life with my new family I had to deal with the assumption I wasn’t serious any more.
But now, if I do shake? Wow, do I ever know how much my whole body is so amped to being doing what I do. Even with kids, in a smaller hub, and all the connotations and challenges that presents, I am here. If you can stay in it and in love with it, AS you create a whole life for yourself outside of it, you will be better and more committed for it. All of the ups and downs and starts and restarts have only really shown me that it’s not even about being resilient, it’s simpler than that. It’s just who I am.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
This is a tough one. Because I think technology and how early and quickly people are doing things now plays a huge role in how we can support a creative ecosystem. In the end, what comes to me is something I learned from that University major I will never use (ha!). It’s an idea from Christine de Pizan – considered the first ever female political scientist – in a book she wrote in 1405. It was speaking to men versus women and equality at the time, and she said that we don’t need more women filling the roles that men traditionally took on (think lawyers, doctors, judges) to create equality, because we already have enough judges etc. What we need is for society to view the traditional roles of women to be equally as valued in society. I.e. the mother who raised the judge to be held equally as valued as the judge himself.
Now, this isn’t a question of traditional equality, but it does have to do with equity of skills value.
As technology advances, creative thinking will differentiate one person from another (from a machine). I think that working to not ‘educate’ the creativity out of our kids and also really celebrating older people who express their artistry without fear or embarrassment is how we can very intentionally fight to embolden our greater creative ecosystem.
Contact Info:
- Website: kristamarchand.com
- Instagram: @kristamarchand
Image Credits
Helen Tansey